Issa Rae and Hannah Diop’s haircare brand, Sienna Naturals, joins Sephora’s lineup, and the girls are loving it! Diop, who is Rae’s sister-in-law, started Sienna Naturals in 2012. The brand centers around products tailored toward textured hair and only uses “clean” ingredients. The “Insecure” creator joined the company as the face and co-owner in 2020. When Rae joined Sienna Naturals, she had just done the big chop and was looking for the right products to care for her natural hair.
According to Fashionista, Rae said that the decision to join the Sienna Naturals family felt “easy.” The transition for the actress was nothing short of seamless. “I was already using the products. I was in this space with ‘Insecure’ where I was so intentional about showcasing natural hair,” she shared. “[With Sienna Naturals], I had a product I was using, believed in, and was ready to take it to the next level.”
Sienna Naturals joins Sephora’s lineup to build on its retail industry takeover.
With Rae now cemented as the company’s face, Sienna Naturals set off to conquer the retail industry one store at a time. After selling at Credo Beauty, Erewhon, Thirteen Lune, and Nordstrom, in addition to their own site, Sienna Naturals joined the Sephora lineup on July 16.
“Sephora has a history of coming in at an early with brands or [taking on] brands that are newer to the market, but in our case, the timing feels right for us,” Diop told Glossy.
Joining Sephora’s lineup is a major milestone for the brand, as it is the biggest beauty retailer. Sienna Naturals offers shampoo, conditioner, and styling products that contain “clean” ingredients.
The move to Sephora follows the brand’s participation in Sephora’s 2024 accelerator program, a competitive incubator for early-stage beauty brands. It was only fitting that Sienna Naturals join Sephora’s lineup.
“Sephora is so great in terms of building brands, accessing their audiences, and knowing data points we want to reach,” Diop told Fashionista. “There’s so much synergy, and to be in Sephora is a dream.”
Diop was inspired to start the brand while living in her apartment in Harlem after struggling to properly care for her natural hair. Her mother, who also didn’t know how to care for textured hair, would buy natural hair products, but none of them would successfully nourish her hair.
The Sephora launch has been in the works for a long time. Diop recently uncovered screenshots of texts to Rae from 2018, where they brainstormed. Per Fashionista, one of the texts read, “We’re going to take this all the way to Sephora.”
Sienna Naturals was born after the realization of inadequate haircare products in the market.
As a Black woman with textured hair, Rae was appalled at the lack of haircare options that catered to natural hair. That said, it’s up to us to make sure we’re taken care of. Sienna Naturals is for Black women by Black women.
“I think there needs to be more of an approachable conversation to tending to our hair,” Rae told Fashionista. “We already have such a neglectful health industry when it comes to Black women in particular. When the products we’re using are exacerbating that, that’s terrible,” Rae says. “Who’s going to think about us except for us?”
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